ATTORNEY General and Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall said the media was requested not to ask questions at the National Stakeholders’ consultation on the Amaila Falls Hydro project because their role there was to essentially cover the event.  He observed that the media would have had, and will still continue to have innumerable opportunities to ask questions about the project.

He indicated that when Minister in the Ministry of Finance Juan Edghill said that questions would not have been taken from the media at the forum held on Thursday, “that statement of the minister was unfortunately misconstrued.”
The AG explained that the minister spoke in the context that “that was a stakeholders’ forum, intended and designed to have stakeholders express their views. The role of the media at that forum was simply to cover the event,” he reiterated.
“Because of constraints of time, I am sure that it was felt that entertaining the media at that stage was not a prudent thing. It was never the intention to shut out the media and the impression that is being conveyed is one that is wrong,” the AG stated.
AG Nandlall further explained that the media as a stakeholder gets opportunities on a regular basis to ask questions about the project that the stakeholders who were gathered at the forum do not get, “and therefore that forum was arranged for those stakeholders to address and get an opportunity to ask questions because it is recognised that the media has access to reports and functionaries of the government on a regular basis.”